Tiffany Williams-Cobleigh watched on as a group of school-age children gathered around a pile of Legos dumped on a table at the Prairieview Townhomes community center. A Western Illinois University sociology student in the Peace Corps Fellow program, she happened to be monitoring the Lego table during Thursday afternoon's Food for Thought after-school program, an outreach of the First Presbyterian Church that's open to all students.

"I'm interested in helping out the in the community, and I'm also an AmeriCorps volunteer," Williams-Cobleigh said, "so I like to seek out opportunities in the community.

"It's just offering a place for kids to come knowing that people are invested in them, whether it's playing a game or helping with homework."

While the action at the Lego table continued, Will Wetzel, First Presbyterian Church's mission and youth director, greeted a child as he arrived and asked him if he'd like a snack.

The Thursday after-school program at Prairieview, a McDonough County Housing Authority facility, is the result of the church's recent expansion of the program, which until three weeks ago was held only on Fridays at the church.

Wetzel said he was notified Wednesday that the Food for Thought program will receive a $25,000 grant from Presbytery of Great Rivers, allowing the church to expand the program, which is offered at no cost, to five days next year.

Presbytery of Great Rivers, based in Peoria, supports and serves Presbyterian churches in the region.

The Friday program at the church is held from 3 to 5 p.m. Mentors — many of them students from WIU — work with children in kindergarten through sixth grade on school work or other projects. From 5 to 5:30 p.m., a meal is served to children and their families.

Families are also sent home with a bag of groceries with enough food to prepare at least one meal. Transportation is provided to those children who need it, though Wetzel said the program is already transporting all the children they can accommodate. Between 20 and 40 children attend every Friday.

Four hundred children have been reached this school year through the Friday program, according to Wetzel, and 3,500 meals have been served.

"We were interested in finding a center that many kids could walk to, so that we could serve more kids," Wetzel said about the expansion to Prairieview. "There are many kids in that neighborhood."

Mary Hart, a Peace Corps Fellow graduate assistant assigned to the housing authority, said the program is open to all students through 12th grade. The average attendance has been about seven children. Hart hopes that number will increase.

"This after-school at Prairieview provides children with a safe place to go after-school, help with homework, snacks, and positive role modeling," Hart said.

"It's still hit and miss, but I still think we're going to have a strong program," said Kylie Davenport, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with First Presbyterian Church.

Page 2 of 2 - In addition to expanding the Food for Thought after-school program, the church is developing programming for K-12 students during school breaks, holidays and the summer months.

Among those programs are a summer recreation and feeding program, established with the Illinois Coalition of Community Services, and summer family movie series on Tuesday nights. The films will be screened outdoors in the green space near the Macomb community gardens.

Wetzel is uncertain of the locations that will be used when the Food for Thought after-school program expands to five days, but said the program's mission will be same — to feed children and their families, provide mentorship and strengthen families.

"We want this to be the community's after-school program, not just the church's," he said. "We want to look out for the community, not just ourselves."

For more information on First Presbyterian Church's Food for Thought after-school program, visit www.firstpresmacomb.org/mission/food-for-thought, or contact Wetzel at 309-833-3333.